Originally Posted by Reisen

Just returned from a 5 night stay. CreditCardGeek, I suspect we were there at the same time. A bunch of observations (this is going to be long and detailed):

- I'm really torn on this resort. I loved a lot of things about it, but also had some minor qualms. The other guests I spoke with were divided. Some loved it, some were actively seeking to move hotels.

Food & Drink:

- I think they need to overhaul some of their food options. Nachos were good, but fajitas were extremely underwhelming. I can get better fajitas at dozens of restaurants in any major US city. Tacos were good, and huge, but not nearly as "fancy" as most street tacos you'll find at upscale US Mexican restaurants (I'm talking fresh cilantro, maybe queso fresco, lime wedges, a couple of other vegetarian toppings, etc). The guac was fine, but I make better. If they are going to charge $12+, they could / should do like fancy US Mexican restaurants and put fruit in it, pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, etc. Maybe have a couple of different options.

- Unfortunately, halfway through my stay, they dramatically raised prices at the lagoon pool, eliminating the good deals they had. The 90 peso guac mentioned by CreditCardGeek went up to 220 pesos. Chicken fajitas more than doubled in price. A raw tuna tostada went up 400%!

- There were food "specials" by the pool each day, with a big grill and lots of condiment toppings. They were expensive ($20+), and all American dishes like ribs, hamburgers, sausages, hot dogs, etc. Ribs or burgers do not interest me at an upscale resort in Riviera Maya. Where's the carne asada? Carnitas?

- Cocktails were "meh". Sort of what I'd expect at a mid-tier resort (ie. Sheraton) or a chain mexican restaurant, but with NYC or Four Seasons pricing ($17+ with included tax and tip). For the same price, the cocktails I got at the other resorts (Rosewood and Banyan Tree) were on a whole different planet quality-wise, including the margarita.

- If you're not getting free breakfast, Olla Taco has great options for very reasonable prices down by the beach. We ate here every morning, and unlimited coffee (including express drinks) and fresh juice is included in the price.

- We ate mostly at the other restaurants in Mayakoba, and enjoyed each of our meals, especially liking Safron. It's very expensive, but to me was a noticeable step up from any Thai food I've had outside Thailand, and rivaling some of the better Thai food I've had in Thailand. My wife thought her Pad Thai was underwhelming, but I really loved my $40 beef curry, which came with a huge amount of beef that was so tender I could have cut it with my spoon.

- We ate at Casa Amate one night, and I dug the vibe, and the food was quite good. We never did go to Cocina Milagro.

- It has been mentioned before in this thread, but bottled water easily throws $12 or $14 on your bill at every meal. My wife kept doing it because she was sketched out by the tap water in the pitchers, but I drank it all week long, and never got sick. I resorted to bringing bottled water from the room with us to restaurants.

- Per my note above, the general consensus from other guests I spoke to was that the food and drink quality needs to be higher for the price point they are charging.

Service:

- Service, generally, was very good. Most of the time, golf carts came in 90 seconds or less. The resort was not very busy, so that may have helped. The restaurant managers were fantastic, and all the guys driving the golf carts were super friendly. Drink/food staff at the pools and restaurants were ok, some better than others.

- We arrived around 11am, and I did the online check in the day before. Our room wasn't ready at 11, but it was by 1pm, which is pretty good for a resort and before the normal check in time. This is in contrast to the GH Playa, where last year my room wasn't ready until 6pm (and I wasn't happy about it).

- The hotel provides SUV service to the other hotels on property, and we never had to wait more than 2 minutes in the lobby.

- My experience with the concierge was more mixed. They did ultimately get me a reservation at Saffron, but a couple of times they forgot to call me back on that, and other reservations, and I kept having to check in with them. Others had far worse experiences, and one couple was sent on a snorkeling trip to a boat outfit that had closed months ago (they didn't find out until they got there). They wasted a half day, plus $$$ on ground transfers.

- Generally, other than a few issues with the concierge not being responsive, I think their staff is well selected and trained, and they seem to really care about giving great service.

Room:

- We stayed in a Lagoon View Suite in building 11. My wife was "wowed" by the suite, which I was very pleased with, given we have stayed in suites at Park Hyatt Mallorca, St Regis Princeville, lots of ski resorts, lots of nice city hotels, GH Playa, luxury safaris in South Africa, etc. Anyway, we really liked it, and other than the lack of a bathtub, I would say it is a big step up from the suites at GH Playa. The plunge pool was shaded much of the day, which kept it a little colder, but also was nice to get out of the sun. The decks were huge, with plenty of space for hanging out.

- The suite has two doors: an outer door to get to a small area near the plunge pool, then the inner door to the actual suite. There is a third door just past the first one that goes to another hotel room. This is obviously set up to turn the whole thing into a two bedroom suite, which would be great for larger families. You get interior access without sharing an adjoining wall (the plunge pool sits between the main suite and the hotel room next to it).

- I'm really annoyed to see CreditCardGeek's comment about heating the plunge pool. I had small children with me (6 and 2), and we would have used this more if we could have gotten it warmer. Pretty big miss from the hotel's perspective, IMO.

- I really liked our location in building 11. CreditCardGeek's photo of the resort map is helpful. I actually think building 10 might be optimal for the Lagoon, as it has the best views of the lagoon and the Rosewood residences, plus is very close to the spa, gym, lagoon pool, dock, and restaurants. Buildings 10 and 11 bracket the pool area, but we never heard noise from anything during the day or night. Our building, building 11, still looks out at a good bit of water, plus both restaurants (Cocina Milagra and Casa Amate), and is close to everything (especially the Kids Club). It seems to me that some of the other buildings will have views looking onto each other, and you might need golf cart rides to go pretty much anywhere (or at least have a much longer walk to the lagoon pool area). I'd be curious to see the views from the higher #'s suites in terms of privacy; for our view, you can look earlier in the post for JKJetSetter's picture from building 12 (we were next door). My recommendation: the lower #'d Lagoon suites are optimal.

- AC was powerful.

- Our two small children were able to sleep on the couch without issue. With the cushions removed, and sheets / blanked on it, it's almost the size of a full bed. I actually preferred this to the pull-out sofa in the GH Playa suite, which I found very mushy.

Resort Amenities:

- Let's start with Kimbo, the kid's club. You can't beat free, and there are no charges. It's heavily used; even with the hotel not crowded, there were always kids there, which was a plus for my 6 y/o. The nice young women who work there seem to work hard, and there was always some kind of art project or game going on. They also often have some kind of food thing (one day it was make your own pizza, another day they made cupcakes, another it was ice cones). Lastly, they take the kids to the beach / pool each day, so your kid is not getting stuck inside. Our daughter loved it there, and probably went 3 of the 5 days for about 3 hours each.

- Spa - I forgot about the free hydrotherapy, and am kicking myself for not figuring out a way to take advantage, or send my wife. Other than that, I thought it was overpriced. With tax and tip, a 1 hour massage would have approached $300. If I felt like paying that kind of money for a spa, I would have opted for the Banyan Tree or Rosewood's spa. Even with the 20% discount, we skipped the services. $400 a day in food felt like plenty of spending as it was.

- Beach - The beach was ok. It might be nice if they could have used white sandbags instead of black; it would make them stand out less. They definitely are fighting erosion. The water was decently choppy most of the 5 days we were here, which took away from the crystal blue color we saw last year in Playa del Carmen. That said, it is large, and not crowded at all. You won't be fighting over beach chairs or umbrellas, which is a huge plus. There was a lot of seaweed, but they had a small army raking it up each day.

- Pools - As has been mentioned, the beach pool is moderately sized, and fairly cold. The Lagoon pool is 3-4x the size, with multiple pools, two hot tubs, and 2 of the pools are like bath water. This was fantastic for parents of small kids, who get cold easily. The only problem is, everyone is competing for that warm water. Our kids are well behaved, and never splashed anyone, but I saw some conflicts between drunk adults making out in the hot tubs or the pool right next to them, and kids playing on the pool toys. Each pool had multiple free treats per day, generally stuff like fruit, juice, gello, etc. Very popular with the kids.

- Cenote and El Pueblita - These are worth a quick visit. The Pueblita actually had a lot of events (stuff like cooking schools and markets) that were not advertised at the hotel anywhere I could find. I found this a bit of a miss, as we might have visited some of them.

- Boat ride / ecotour - We did this a couple of times and really enjoyed it. The guides are quite good, and you can/will see a lot of wildlife, including small crocodiles, birds, iguanas, etc. The canals are quite pretty, and the boats are both covered, and electric (ie. quiet).

- Golf - I really wanted to play, but opted against it to spend time with the spouse and kids. The course looked ok, but mainly looked like a jungle course. Twilight rate is $129, and starts at 1pm. Club rental is $50. They do not rent shoes (unlike Papagayo), so bring your own or wear tennis shoes.

- Gym - Beautiful, and well stocked. Lots of machines, free weights, fresh fruit, good air conditioning, and completely glass with nice views. I worked out a couple of times, and each time there were two other people in there. My wife said a couple of times she went it was somewhat crowded. They get an A+ here, one of the nicest resort gyms I've used.

General / Logistical:

- We used USA Transfers/Entertainment Plus for ground transfers from CUN, which were $105 (+tip) RT for 4 people in a van. They are reliable, friendly, and very quick to respond. I found that recommendation last year in the GH Playa thread.

- There were a decent amount of mosquitos. All restaurants have spray, but we were bitten (even with spray) every time we sat outside at a restaurant that wasn't at a beach at night, including Casa Amate and Saffron. Beach restaurants were windy enough it wasn't an issue. There were also mosquitos in the lobby / sanctuary area. It makes sense given the jungle / mangrove environment. If you're worried about Zika, this might be a factor. I never saw a mosquito last year at GH Playa.

- They need more bikes. I think I saw on TripAdvisor they claim they are on order, but the other resorts constantly had plenty of bikes at each of their locations. Andaz needs to get with the program. Biking around the resort is a great way to get around.

- Get out and see the other resorts. Rosewood and Banyan Tree are gorgeous. We walked around the lobby and had drinks at their bars, as well as ate at their restaurants. Cello (at Banyan Tree) is new, and seems to be getting poor reviews. BT had a movie night showing "Trolls" and popcorn / ice cream for the kids. We ate at Saffron first, then drank at the bar and got some couple time while the rugrats sat, enthralled. It was great.

- Like many other resorts I've been to, there were a lot of kids. I think we need to face that fact that the people that can afford to stay here are often in their 30's, 40's, or 50's with families. With the kids club and warm pools, I would classify this as a very family-friendly resort. I would guess more families with kids than single couples.

- Layout - I think the distance from the lagoon to the beach has been overstated. I ran it in 8 minutes, so I would guess it is about a mile. The path is concrete, well lit, and has multiple crossing with roads going to the Rosewood.